Standing outside the jockey’s room on opening day Wednesday at Del Mar, Patrick Valenzuela is a magnet — and magnetic in a bubble-gum, Seersucker suit.

Person after person stops to shake hands or take a selfie with the always talented, too-often troubled jockey who roared to within a Belmont Stakes victory of claiming the Triple Crown in 1989 aboard Sunday Silence.

He’s the Pete Rose of his sport, staggering numbers staunched by stumbles that sideline those kinds of fly-fast, burn-hot comets around Hall of Fame entrances while debate roils.

“I’ve been on both sides of the door, no doubt,” said Valenzuela, who has missed at least a decade of mounts in his career because of substance-abuse and personal issues while still piling up 4,372 wins.

“Hey, I’m blessed with a beautiful family. I’ve got four daughters. I’ve got three grandchildren. So I can’t complain about life. Whether I ride again or not, I’m a blessed individual.”

That he stubbornly refuses to give up on competing, at age 55, offers a glimpse into the fiery competitor who bowed to no one on the track and fought more demons than he can count off it.

He’s won seven Breeders’ Cup races. He’s snared riding titles at Del Mar in three decades, something only accomplished by the legendary Bill Shoemaker. At 17, he became the youngest jockey to win the Santa Anita Derby.

The obstacle to even larger stardom, amidst the galaxy of the sport’s greats, was himself. In the 1990s, he was suspended by racing authorities eight times. From January 1983 to September 2008 alone, according to the book “Del Mar: Where the Turf Meets the Surf,” he faced 28 fines or suspensions above and beyond simple riding infractions or minor offenses.

Yet the ability, indisputable.

When he won his first riding crown at Del Mar as a 23-year-old in 1986, he bested a who’s-who of Hall of Famers swirling around him — titans like Laffit Pincay Jr., Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye and Gary Stevens.

Dan Smith, Del Mar’s media coordinator in his 55th year, recalled eating breakfast in the stable kitchen one year during Kentucky Derby week at Churchill Downs. Sitting at a table next to him was late, iconic trainer Charlie Whittingham and Dr. Ernest Gaillard.

“Charlie said, ‘Patrick Valenzuela is the best position rider I’ve ever seen,’ ” Smith said. “When you think of the jockeys he worked with, that’s about the highest praise you can get.”

So you ask Valenzuela, are you a Hall of Famer — wins, warts and all?

“I should be, right? C’mon. My credentials?” Valenzuela said. “Ask the Hall, why isn’t Patrick Valenzuela in the Hall of Fame? That’s a good question, right? I’ve won the Derby, won the Preakness, seven Breeders’ Cups, all those riding titles. What more do I have to do?”

The past, many of us learn, lingers.

There’s a story about Valenzuela being so cagey back in the day that he dodged drug screeners who tested hair follicles by shaving every inch of his body. The smile that trailed a question about it flashed that magnetism again.

“I shaved because my girlfriend liked no hair on my body,” he said.

Valenzuela says he’s been sober for a year and 10 months. So he waits, wondering if the California Horse Racing Board will offer the king of the second chances yet one more.

To sate his appetite for the sport, he’s working out horses for a range of trainers at San Luis Rey Downs. He also signed off on a deal to provide periodic coverage of Del Mar through the season for KUSI-TV, which promotes him as the “bad boy of the jockey room.”

“I’m just trying to be an ambassador for racing and get people more interested in Del Mar and the sport,” he said.

The spark still glows.

“I don’t think my racing days will ever be over,” said Valenzuela, who last raced in December 2016 when he tore his ACL at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. “I don’t know if it will be next week, next month or when. But I will ride again. I just want to get back to the winner’s circle.”

You remind him he’s 55.

“The speed limit, I go,” he said.

You remind him about the fitness and weight-control required to secure mounts in a hyper-competitive business.